#TXLEGE: Capriglione's Protectionist Roofing Scheme FAILS SPECTACULARLY

"Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil,
But counselors of peace have joy."
Proverbs 12:20

[Note: You can view the full discussion of HB 2101 here.  The relevant section begins at the 3 hour, 12 minute mark.  It runs for about half an hour.]

For a bill deadline day, yesterday was fairly anticlimactic.  The Texas house passed a modestly useful constitutional amendment prohibiting a state income tax.  Otherwise, the day went how we expected.

Except, however, for one bill that failed,

HB 2101, by Giovanni Capriglione, would require mandatory registration and fees for all roofing contractors in the state.  We're actually on the mailing list for the lobbyists who were pushing this bill.  That's the only we're familiar with it.

As luck would have it, we were in the house gallery as the bill was discussed last night.

We chronicled it, real time, on Facebook:



And Twitter:

#TXLEGE: Republican (Capriglione) lays out bill creating $250 mandatory registration for all roofing contractors; Democrat (Romero) asking about "unintended consequences" for "overwhelming majority of responsible business owners...." pic.twitter.com/tIzKXA0FEc

— cahnman (@cahnman) May 10, 2019

For such a wretched bill, opposition was refreshingly bipartisan.

Democrats like Ramon Romero and Abel Herrero talked about how Capriglione's bill was unfair to responsible businesses.  Steve Toth discussed how costs exploded in his industry (swimming pool services) following a similar bill by the legislature.  Matt Schaefer spoke movingly about how such regulations would have made his own economic rise impossible.

The bill failed 33 to 99.

Bottom Line: To see such a wretched elected official pushing such a wretched bill suffer this level of public humiliation was quite fun....